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About Michael J. Miller

Miller, who was editor-in-chief of PC Magazine from 1991 to 2005, authors this blog for PC Magazine to share his thoughts on PC-related products. No investment advice is offered in this blog. All duties are disclaimed. Miller works separately for a private investment firm which may at any time invest in companies whose products are discussed in this blog, and no disclosure of securities transactions will be made.

HDTVs: Improving TV Sound

While we often talk about video quality on displays, getting better sound was also a bi focus at the HDTV conference this week, with a number of companies talking about the problems.

In general, companies talked about two specific problems that we've all faced. The first is that different content is delivered at different volumes, so sometimes when a commercial comes on, it's a lot louder than the program; and when you switch channels, the volume goes up and down. The second is that the quality of audio delivered on most TVs has not improved nearly as fast as the video quality.

. Some of these solutions are just pure leveling solutions, meaning they understand the level you want the volume, and then adjust the volume from different sources to match it. Others model the sound, attempting to do things like making the dialog more understandable. There are big debates over which approaches are right: some say that the director and sound staff on a movie know best how they want it to sound, so all you should do is control the volume; others think the sound range should be adjusted at different volume levels. As near as I can tell, SRS TruVolume is more focused on leveling; THX more on modeling, and the others on both.

Two audio chip companies showed off solutions that support one or more of these new standards. Analog Devices (ADI) showed its SoundMax TV Audio Solutions, which integrates more of the audio building blocks and AV connectivity into a single platform, with features like support for audio algorithms, covering features like automatic volume control, and software to eliminate any lip sync delay. ADI has its own software, but can also work with the branded solutions.

Cirrus Logic showed off its solution, specifically with a demonstrate that turns on and off the Dolby Volume feature, which was quite noticeable not only in helping make the volume more consistent, but also making it more understandable in quiet scenes in a movie. Cirrus also had a demo of the SRS solution.

All the demos I heard were impressive, and I can't judge between them, as they aren't yet in finished TV sets, and the demos typically involved different sources and different environments. But I do like the concept and think it will be an important differentiator in TVs to come.

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